Orange County put on notice about courtrooms

Thursday

Jun 7, 2012 at 2:00 AM

GOSHEN - State court officials are again threatening to withhold funding from Orange County unless the county either fixes and reopens its courtrooms in the closed Government Center or provides comparable space elsewhere. In a testy letter faxed to County Executive Ed Diana on Wednesday, Ronald Younkins, the chief of operations for the Office of Court Administration, gave the county until June 30 to tell him which of those two options it had picked and until Oct. 31 to complete its plans. He warned Diana that he will seek "significant financial sanctions" if the county fails to meet either deadline.

Chris McKenna

GOSHEN — State court officials are again threatening to withhold funding from Orange County unless the county either fixes and reopens its courtrooms in the closed Government Center or provides comparable space elsewhere.

In a testy letter faxed to County Executive Ed Diana on Wednesday, Ronald Younkins, the chief of operations for the Office of Court Administration, gave the county until June 30 to tell him which of those two options it had picked and until Oct. 31 to complete its plans.

He warned Diana that he will seek "significant financial sanctions" if the county fails to meet either deadline.

The threat of sanctions will spur renewed discussion over the fate of the Government Center, which has been in limbo since lawmakers rejected Diana's $75 million plan to demolish and replace it last month.

The building has been empty since Sept. 8, when Diana closed it because of water damage and mold left by back-to-back storms.

Earlier this year, after Younkins made a similar ultimatum, the county converted existing space in the adjacent courthouse into two makeshift courtrooms and two office suites for judges and court employees who were displaced from the Government Center.

But that arrangement was supposed to be temporary.

In his letter, Younkins said the two temporary courts "are too small and lack a separate means of access by the judges," as state law requires. He also said the arrangement left the Family Court without a "critically needed" waiting room and replaced only two of the six courtrooms the Government Center had held.

Citing a federal report on the Government Center's condition, Younkins blamed long-standing neglect of the building for the county's failure to provide adequate court space.

"It has now become clear," he wrote, "that the reason that the courts have been deprived of the use of the Government Center space was the failure of the County over a long period of time to properly maintain that building, and not a sudden one-time extraordinary weather event."

Diana didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

He had planned to provide new courtrooms and related offices in the new building he wanted, seeing that as a long-term solution to the county's court needs. But in his letter on Wednesday, Younkins scolded Diana for proceeding with his plans without telling the state and getting assurance that the proposal included sufficient court space.

As it turned out, the Office of Court Administration learned from newspaper articles that Diana's plan would have slashed the Government Center's court space by 30,000 square feet, or roughly 62 percent, and might have relied on continued use of the temporary courtrooms in the adjacent courthouse.

"It appears that your plan would not have met the needs of the courts," Younkins wrote.

This new ultimatum poses a quandary. Reoccupying the Government Center's court space would almost certainly require replacing the roof, at least over that section of the building, but lawmakers have yet to even discuss the idea of renovations after rejecting Diana's plans for a new building.

And it's unclear if the county could avoid any immediate repair decisions by borrowing court space elsewhere, since that option was explored unsuccessfully last fall.

cmckenna@th-record.com

Letter to Diana

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